Post Its
by starlightsmuse
Summary: What happens when Jess stops leaving cheerful post-it notes around the apartment?  Does Nick step in to help her out?
1. Chapter 1

Jess liked post-it notes, particularly the ones that came in a variety of colours, and she was forever leasing them around the apartment for Winston, Schmidt, and Nick to find. They weren't, however, the catty, passive-aggressive notes that some people leave for their roommates, but rather little blurbs of bubbly, Jess-style encouragement that were meant to brighten their days. Winston smiled at his roommate's goofiness. Schmidt memorized them to use with his potential women. Nick usually rolled his eyes at them, but deep down inside, was actually touched by the sentiment. After all, it is always nice to know that someone cares enough about you to leave brightly coloured bits of sunshine around for you to find.

However, on this particular day, there were no post-it notes. In fact, if the guys thought about it, the amount of post-its had been dwindling ever since she had brought home Paul for thanksgiving. This was not because she was spending increasing amounts of time at his apartment, as they had yet to actually spend the night together, a fact that was fairly well-known amongst her roommates. They supposed that she must be distracted by her new man, and that she was presumably spending the greater part of her sunshine on him. Schmidt and Winston accepted this for what it was, and Nick claimed to be pleased not to run into hot pink flowers and bright yellow suns every time he opened his door. It was only when the post-its stopped all together, that they figured that there might be some kind of problem.

"You don't think Jess is mad at us, do you?" Schmidt said to Nick and Winston as they went into the kitchen.

"I don't want to do anything that would get CeCe angry at me, and I feel like enraging Jess might have that effect."

"Does Jess even really have the ability to get mad?" countered Winston."Man, have you forgotten about how she went off on Nick at thanksgiving?"

"Yeah, but that's Nick. She doesn't get mad at us!"

"Guys, you do realize that I'm right here, right?" said Nick.

"Okay, but that's not the point," said Schmidt. "Look, is she mad at us or not?"

"How would we even know?" asked Winston.

"I'll talk to her," said Nick. "If she is mad, she won't have a problem letting me know, if thanksgiving is any indication."

"Oh, thank god!" said Schmidt. "We've been hoping you'd say that. I can't deal with girl anger. There's too much risk of hair pulling."

"Dude," said Winston."Hey, I spend a lot of time on my hair, I don't want some nutty girl pulling it!"

"Schmidt, first of all, I don't think Jess is really a hair-pulling, kind of girl, man up. Second of all, no guy should be that proud of his hair or how much time he spends doing it." said Nick. He hopped off his stool and walked towards Jess' room.

"Anyway, I'm going to go see if I can figure out what's up with her."

"Good luck, man." said Schmidt.

"Yeah, tell her we're sorry if we did anything wrong." said Winston.

Nick knocked on Jess' door, and heard a "Come in" in a small voice. Nick entered accordingly. Contrary to her custom of bouncing around, Jess was tucked into bed, leafing through a magazine, undoubtedly left by CeCe. Nick sat down on the foot of her bed and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Jess, are you sick?" he asked.

"Sick? No, no. I am just having a lazy kind of day," she replied.

"Oh, well, that's good then. Hey, listen, you're not mad at me and the guys are you?"

"Mad? No, why would I be mad?"

"Well, it's just that there isn't a single post-it note up anywhere today, for the first time since you moved in… And we just thought, maybe we'd done something that made you want to stop leaving them."

"I thought you didn't like my post-it notes?" smiled Jess.

"Well, I mean, Winston and Schmidt like them. And they don't offend me or anything like that. But it does matter to me, and to them, if we've done something to upset you, which seemed possible, given the post-it situation."

"Oh. Well, the thing is, that isn't about you guys at all. I just haven't been feeling as cheerful lately. I'm just a little worried is all."

"Worried about what, Jess?""Just… Paul."

"What did he do? Did he hurt you? Did he break up with you? I'll beat him up. Winston and Schmidt will help. Well, Winston will help. Schmidt will buy you ice cream. And maybe a puppy, if you want."

"What? No, Nick, nothing like that! It's just that our relationship is starting to get more serious, and one of these days I'm going to have spend the night with him."

"Oh, but that's a good thing. So, what's worrying you?"

"Um," said Jess, hesitantly. She lowered her voice to an incomprehensible mumble.

"Didn't catch that, Jess, sorry, try again," said Nick.

"I said, I'm afraid he's going to find out that I'm bad in bed."

Whatever Nick had been expecting, it certainly wasn't that. He was not equipped to deal with these kind of female insecurities. He had never heard of someone admitting to being bad in bed. Also, if he thought about it, which he did, but only inadvertently, there was no way Jess could be bad in bed. She was too full of life and energy and spontaneity. That combination would automatically make her a dynamo in the sack. Damn it, he hadn't seriously just thought about how good his roommate would be in bed, had he? He shook his head, as though trying to forget the image that was forming there, of Jess in some pyjamas that were definitely not made of flannel. He swallowed.

"What? Jess, that's crazy!" he said. "What makes you think you're bad in bed?"

"Well, I mean, my last boyfriend did feel the need to have sex with another woman, so obviously I couldn't satisfy him in the bed department."

"Jess, the fact that your ex cheated on you doesn't make you bad in bed, it just makes him an ass. Now I want you to pick up the phone, call Paul, and tell him you're coming over for a sleepover. Just don't bring anything flannel."

"Aww, thanks Nick. You know just what to say sometimes. Oh, wait one second!" she said, as he got up to leave. He paused. She grabbed a Sharpie, and a stack of Post-its from her bedside table, and quickly scribbled something out. She handed him the note and he read it out loud.

"You can borrow a cup of sugar from a neighbour, but only the best roommate can lend you a cup of sunshine," he smirked. She beamed.

"Thanks, Jess."

"You're welcome, Nick." He left her room, to find Winston and Schmidt still in the kitchen, looking anxious.

"Crisis averted," he said, waving the sticky note at them.

"Phew," said Winston.

"What does it say?" asked Schmidt.

"Oh, just that we rock as roommates, basically," laughed Nick. "Anyway, I'm going to bed." He headed into his own room, along with the post-it. Like several other Jess-isms on post-its, he put it in his top drawer. There were maybe fifteen of them in total that he had kept, but he found that every once in awhile, it helped to be able to have that little bit of bubbly to call on.


	2. Chapter 2

When Nick left his bedroom the next morning, there was a post-it on the wall next to his door. He smirked, before looking around to make sure none of his roommates were around to see him read it, and depending on how good it was, maybe snatch it from the wall for his own secret stash.

"Gone to have a boy-girl sleepover (or two) at Paul's. Enjoy the football and beer!"

Nick was stunned. There was nothing inspirational about this note. It was an actual note that a normal person might leave for her roommates letting them know her whereabouts. It certainly wasn't Jess. Before he knew what he was doing, Nick had punched the wall, right next to the note. The result was that there was now a hole in the wall, which he would have to fix, and really sore knuckles to boot.

"Damn it!" exclaimed Nick, unsure who or what exactly he was damning. He moved the note to the kitchen table so that Schmidt and Winston wouldn't suspect that the brand new hole in the wall had anything to do with his feelings about it. As for Jess, well, she was gone for the weekend, apparently, so as long as he fixed the wall before then, she would never have to know that he had had such an emotional reaction to something she had done. He went back into his room, grabbed Schmidt's tool kit and went back out to survey the damage, holding a hammer for good measure. Winston would probably have slept through the noise of him punching the wall, but Schmidt tended to be more of an early riser, and could appear at any as Nick had that thought, Schmidt's door popped open.

"What was that loud banging noise about?" he asked.

"Oh, well, there's some faulty wiring around the fridge's self-cooling thermometric system, so I'm just doing a quick fix to get it working again. Shouldn't take long," replied Nick, combining words in such a way that was sure to make Schmidt lose interest quickly, as he knew about as much about electricity as he did about plumbing. It was pretty much an iron-clad excuse.

"Not the self-cooling thermophasic system!" he gasped. "My sashimi and dragon rolls are in there!"

Nick raised an eyebrow as Schmidt bolted to the fridge, threw open the door, grabbed the tray of sushi and started caressing it.

"Papa's got you. I won't let that fridge destroy your gloriousness. I'm going to eat you right now! Sushi makes the best breakfast anyway. All that protein. And so lean…" he trailed off.

"Schmidt, you're talking to raw fish. Put a dollar in the jar."

Schmidt groaned, but put the requisite dollar in the douche bag jar."I can see when I'm not wanted." he said, grabbing a pair of chopsticks and heading back to his room with the sushi. "Try to get the thermodynamic system working again soon. This is a lot of sushi to eat in one go."

"Thermometric. And yeah, I'll let you know when it's done."

Nick set about fixing the damage he had caused, thinking to himself as he did so. Why had he gotten so upset anyway? Was it really just the fact that Jess had left them such a run-of-the-mill note? Or was there more to it than that? Great, now he was becoming introspective. There was a time when he happily would have ignored any feelings he might have had for his prettiest roommate. Damn it! He had to stop thinking about things like how pretty Jess was, or how good she was in bed, or how her eyes sparkled, or how her words lifted his spirits up like millions of tiny bubbles, or damn it! This was getting worse by the second. So he had a little crush on Jess. People got crushes on other people all the time. Not necessarily their roommates though. He would get over it. No house-cest. Besides, she was with Paul anyway. And she thought he had a turtle face. And wore old man clothes. She would never be interested in him. And it didn't matter anyway, it was just a dumb crush.


	3. Chapter 3

As Nick's mind was going through this turmoil, and he was trying desperately not to let himself fall even farther for Jess than he already had, his phone rang. Of course it was Jess. He sighed. Maybe he could ignore it. Yeah, right.

"Hey Jess, what's up?" he said.

"Nick, I just got a text from Schmidt saying that the thermostatic cooling system for the fridge was on the fritz, and I don't think that's an actual thing… but I have some pretty expensive ice cream in the freezer, so is there anything actually wrong with the fridge, cause I could stop by to get the ice cream and just bring it to Paul's."

"I told him it was the thermometric system, not the thermostatic cooling system. He really can't get it right."

"Oh… kay. Well, is that a real thing? Because I've still never heard of a thermometric cooling system, and I'm really just concerned about my ice cream."

"No, it's not a real thing. Schmidt was just getting on my nerves about the damn hole in the wall. Your ice cream is safe, Jess."

"Phew! That's a relief. Wait, what hole in the wall?"

Crap, Nick thought. He should have seen that coming. Clearly he needed to better at lying to his roommates. Now he was going to have to come up with yet another plausible excuse as to why there was a hole in the wall, since he was obviously not going to tell Jess that it was because she would be spending the weekend with Paul. He was barely able to admit that part to himself.

"Oh, I lost control of a can of soup, and didn't want to admit to Schmidt that I didn't have enough hand eye coordination to be playing with my food," he laughed.

"That makes much more sense. Okay, well, as long as my ice cream is in safe hands, I'll let you go."

"Wait, Jess, there is one more thing," he said, not ready for this to be his last bit of contact with her for the next two days.

"Yes?"

"Uh… Just uh, have a good time with Paul this weekend. It's kind of weirdly quiet around here without you home."

"Aww, Nick, do you miss me?"

"That's not what I said, Jess. I just said that it was quiet without you. Some people like quiet."

"Yeah, but you said it was weirdly quiet. I think you miss me!" she trilled.

"Fine, Jess, I miss you, okay?"

"Thanks Nick. I miss you guys too. Don't worry, I'll be home before you know it."

"Okay. Later then."

"Byeee!"

Okay, Nick thought. I can at least maintain a normal conversation with her. It's not that bad. Although I really wish she hadn't made me admit that I missed her. This is all Schmidt's fault. He shook his was finally starting to actually mix up the plaster that he was going to have to use to fix the wall, when Winston came out of his room yawning. This was going to be a bit more difficult. There was no way Winston would believe either the story about a non-existent thermometric system or that he had lost control of a can of soup. Nick was just going to have to hope that Winston didn't notice the large hole in the middle of the wall. However, it was not Nick's day, because no sooner had this thought entered his head than Winston exclaimed:

"Dude! What's with the huge hole in the wall?"

Nick thought for a moment, before realizing that he had no excuses left to give. Instead he mad the turtle face, reached into his back pocket, and handed Winston the crumpled up post-it note. Winston read it.

"I don't get it. Jess is staying at Paul's, and she put the sticky note up with so much force that it made a hole in the wall?"

"Dude. You know that's crazy. What do you really think happened?"

"Well, I mean it looks kinda like someone punched the wall. But if not Jess? What? You? But, why?"

Nick glanced at Winston's hand, which was still holding the note. Winston followed his friend's gaze and looked down.

"OH! Oh, dude. Are you falling for this girl? LIke, for our roommate, Jess, who has a boyfriend?"

Nick's hand tightened it's grip on the metal spatula he was using to mix the plaster. He said nothing.

"I'm choosing to take your silence as a yes."

"I don't know, man. It's just a little crush. Not a big deal."

"Nick, it's gotta be a pretty big deal, if you're punching walls at the thought of her being with another man."

"I know. I honestly have no idea how that happened. I never got that enraged about anything Caroline did. I mean, horribly depressed, sure, but I certainly never punched a wall."

"Yep. I'm going to have to agree with you there. Maybe you should talk to Jess about it?"

"Yeah, that would be a great conversation. What would I say? Hey Jess, I know you have a boyfriend and that we live together and all, but I'm just so into you that just the thought of spending the whole weekend without you was enough to make me punch a wall?"

"Okay, you're right. That doesn't sound great when you put it that way," agreed Winston. "Don't worry man. If it's just a crush, it'll go away."

"Yeah," replied Nick, all the while growing more worried that it might be more than the tiny crush he was claiming, both to his friend and to himself.

15 minutes later, the wall was fixed, and Winston had gone off to play some pick-up basketball. Nick was still thinking about Jess. He grabbed the pile of unused sticky notes that she kept on the kitchen counter, as well as the sharpie that sat next to it, and scribbled his own little note.

"Jess, I hope you had a great time with Paul this weekend. I thought about you a lot," he wrote, then crumpled up the note and threw it ripped off a second sheet.

"Jess, I didn't lose control of a can of soup, and you're right, there's no such thing as a thermometric cooling system. When you get back from Paul's, come hang out with me and I'll tell you the real story."Taking a deep breath, Nick opened Jess' door and stuck the note to the inside, so that only she would see it. Then he shut the door again, and left the apartment. The thought of waiting around for the next 30 or so hours for her reaction seemed like it would be torture.

"Well," he thought. "If I'm going to torture myself, I might as well get some Christmas shopping done."


	4. Chapter 4

When Nick returned to the apartment several hours later, laden down with shopping bags, he was surprised to see Jess there, sitting on the couch, watching Dirty Dancing. She did not acknowledge him as he walked into the room. It looked like she was just staring blindly in the direction of the television, rather than actually watching it.

"Hey, Jess," he said. "You okay? You look a little stunned."

She jumped about a foot and a half.

"Oh, god, Nick! How long have you been standing there?"

"Like a minute and a half. I waved at you, but you didn't see me. Like I said, you look a little stunned."

"What? Oh. Yeah. A little. Paul… loves me, apparently."

"Hey! That's fantastic!"

She glares at him.

"What? I wasn't being sarcastic," he says, even though he obviously was.

"Well, sarcasm or not, you're wrong. It is not fantastic. Who falls in love with someone after only a month? I'm not ready to fall in love again yet! I just got out of a six year relationship!"

"Okay. Jess, calm down, you're shouting."

"Nick, of course I'm shouting! In what world should I not be shouting? I've been broken up with Spencer for 4 months! I was with him for six years! Six, Nick! I'm not just going to fall in love with the next guy I date, even if it is Paul, who's cute and nerdy and so sweet… but that's not the point! One month? Is he insane?"

"Jess, seriously, could you take the volume down a notch? I'm not the one who told you he's in love with you after only a month of dating you. Just, take a deep breath. It's going to be fine."

"How is it going to be fine, Nick? I broke up with him! That's not fine! I really liked him!"

"Oh, Jess. I'm sorry."

"Why? Like you said, you weren't the one who told me he was in love with me after a month."

"You know what I mean though. I'm sorry that you're in this situation, because it sucks," he said, though he made the turtle face as he said it. Boy was he glad he hadn't yet told her the real story behind the hole in the wall.

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I'm just a little bit flustered. Oh, by the way," she said, whipping out the note he had left on her door. "What really did happen that caused there to be a hole in the wall?"

"Uh, are you sure you want to hear that story right now? You're upset, and you don't need to add my drama to yours."

"No, Nick, I absolutely want to hear about your drama. If anything, it will serve to distract me from my drama."

He sighed.

"Okay, but I'm going to stand in the kitchen, and I want you to stay seated in the living room while I tell you."

"Whatever you say. Although, that really seems unnecessary. And frankly a bit strange."

"Just do it, okay Jess?"

"Alright, alright. Now tell me this story!"

"Okay, but before I start, I'm just going to point out that this was not what I wanted to have happen. It's all just kind of a big coincidence."

"Will you just get on with it already?"

He took a deep breath.

"Okay, well, I guess the best way to start is to tell you where I put the hole in the wall -"

"When you say put, you mean?" she interrupted him.

"With my fist. There, I said it. I punched the wall, because I was not in control of my emotions, okay? Now, can I just get this over with, without you interrupting?"

"Okay, go ahead."

"So, I punched the wall right over there, by my bedroom," he said, pointing at the spot where the damage had been done. "And you might note that the spot I'm pointing at is just a tiny bit above the spot where someone else had left a note, saying that she was staying at her boyfriend's house all weekend."

Jess gasped.

"Nick!"

"Jess, please, just let me get this all out. I'm going to explain it all. Don't worry, okay?"

She said nothing. He took this as his cue to continue.

"Look, Jess, it's not a big deal. I just got a little jealous that you were going to spend all weekend with Paul, and not hang out here with us, at all. We've barely seen you since you started dating him, and while you were, you were so much less sunny and bubbly than we're used to. You were always worrying about what he said, and what to do, and how to react and stuff, and I just didn't get how you wanted to spend all your time with him, instead of with us, where you can be yourself. And I mean, yeah, maybe I have a little bit of a crush on you, but you're just so damn cute I can't help myself. But I really didn't want you to get hurt, and I guess you were happy with Paul, so I really didn't want him to break up with you, or you to break up with him, but since you did, I'm kind of glad. And it's not like I'm in love with you, unlike him, I don't move through relationships at the speed of light. I also know that we're roommates, and that you're not supposed to like your roommates in the way that I like you, but I don't really care what you're supposed to do. You're not supposed to drop out of law school to become a bartender. You're not supposed to move in with three random guys you found on the internet. But I did, and you did, and supposed to can just go to hell. But I don't want to make you uncomfortable and I don't want you to move out. So, if this is awkward for you, don't worry, because I'll get over it. It's not a big deal. It's just a crush. Tiny. Insignificant, really. And now I'm rambling."

He finally took a breath.

"Wow. Nick, that was a lot of information you just threw at me right there."

"I know. I'm sorry. I just had to get it all out. I'm going to go to my room now, and not bother you for the rest of the day. Or ever. Sorry, again," he said, and bolted out of the kitchen before Jess even had a chance to raised her eyebrow, and blew her hair out of her face. Apparently CeCe had been right. Interesting. And yet, somehow, it didn't feel all that awkward, and she certainly wasn't going to move out over it. She got up. She wasn't quite as done with the conversation as Nick was. She knocked on his door.

"Come in," he called, sure that she was going to tell him her bags were packed and that she would be out before dinner. She entered. She walked toward his bed. She sat down next to him.

"Let me just try something," she said. She leaned in. She kissed him. Just a tiny peck on the lips. Barely two seconds. She pulled back. She tilted her head at him questioningly.

"So how insignificant and tiny is this crush, really?" she asked.

"Not really all that tiny, and actually pretty significant," he replied.

"Okay, good. Just making sure," she said, moving to stand back up. He grabbed her arm. Pulled her back down to the bed. Pulled her closer to him. Kissed her again. For a lot longer than two seconds. Pure bliss. After five minutes, or maybe an hour, they stopped kissing. He leaned back against his headboard. She curled up in his arms.

"Okay, but Jess, I really don't want to be your rebound from Paul. And you guys just broke up a couple hours ago. I don't want to start something with you that you're going to end up regretting."

"I totally understand. So what do we do?"

"I say, we wait a week, exactly, and then if we both still feel this way we start something. I mean, we can give it longer than a week if you don't think that you'll feel ready for anything that soon."

"No, I think a week should be enough time for me to get my head on straight. I did only date Paul for a month."

"Okay, great. And we can take things slow. No need for anyone to fall in love with anyone else or jump into anything. And we'll need to figure out what to tell Schmidt and Winston. Although, Winston kind of already knows. About my half anyway. So, depending on how his day went, Schmidt might know too."

Jess just laughed.

"Okay, so in a week, how do we show that we're both ready, assuming, of course, that we are? I think we should meet in the kitchen, holding something of each other's. Like our toothbrushes. If in one week, we still want to start something, you will go to the kitchen at 5:43 pm, holding my toothbrush, and I will go to the kitchen at 5:43 pm, holding yours."

Nick smiled at this quirky little plan, but that was Jess for you.

"Okay," he said. "Toothbrush, kitchen, 5:43 pm."

"On the dot," she said.

"On the dot," he agreed.

The week passed in a blur for both of them. Nick felt incredibly nervous, as neither of them had said anything about what had transpired between them since the day they had first kissed. They had had no physical contact at all, and Jess had barely even been home. He was worried that now that she had a little bit of space from her breakup that she would no longer want to be with him.

She, on the other hand, was quite looking forward to starting a new relationship with Nick. She had thought about it a lot over the week that he had given her, and really, they made a much better pair than she and Paul, or even she and Spencer ever had. They sparked passion in each other. They challenged each other. Their chemistry, was, quite frankly, palpable. The kisses they had shared proved that. When she had kissed him, she had felt a warm tingle pass down her spine. When he had pulled her back down onto the bed, her heart leapt, and her head spun. Their mouths seemed to fit perfectly together.

Nick had been sitting in the kitchen for an hour clutching a toothbrush, waiting anxiously to see what would happen with the prettiest roommate. What if she didn't show up? Or if she wasn't holding his toothbrush the way he was holding hers? Would she let him down easy at least?

At 5:42, Jess walked into the kitchen, with a characteristically huge smile on her face. She held her hands behind her back, then suddenly drew the right one to the front. It was holding a toothbrush. Nick felt a huge wave of relief and joy wash over him. Neither of them said anything.

He got down off his stool and crossed over to her. He put one hand on her neck, and one hand on her waist, and dipped her backwards. He kissed her for all he was worth. She kissed back with equal enthusiasm. They kissed until they heard the sound of applause. They stood back up and turned toward the living room to see Schmidt and Winston standing there.

"Well," said Jess. "I guess we don't have to worry about telling the guys."

"You make an excellent point," replied Nick. "Now, guys, get the hell out, so I can go back to kissing my new girl."


End file.
